Police seize WWII-era submachine gun during drug arrest

Police seized several guns and small bags of drugs in a Monday arrest. Chicago Tribune's Peter Nickeas reports.

Police seized several guns and small bags of drugs in a Monday arrest. Chicago Tribune's Peter Nickeas reports.

Peter NickeasTribune reporter

Police seized a World War II- era machine gun, a .38-caliber special revolver and 400 small bags of marijuana and heroin after watching a man sell drugs in Gage Park on the South Side, according to police.

Emmanuel Williams was allegedly dealing drugs out of a vacant apartment on 58th Street, between Artesian and Western avenues, less than a block from his home.

Williams was arrested Monday night after officers watched him sell drugs to three people, according to a police report. Williams retrieved the drugs from under a garbage can, where he hid the revolver, the report said.

Fifteen bags of heroin and nine bags of marijuana were found under the garbage can, according to police report, along with the revolver.

Police had seen Williams enter and leave an apartment, which they searched and found “empty of furniture” and “vacant” except for a Sten MKV submachine gun, 156 bags of heroin in 12 bundles of 13 bags each and 260 small bags of marijuana tied together in 21 bundles.

Neither of the weapons were registered, according to police.

He was charged with three counts of armed violence, manufacturing or delivering heroin and cannabis near public schools, possessing between 30 and 500 grams of cannabis and more than 15 grams of heroin and three counts of unlawful use of a weapon, according to court records.

Williams' bail was set at $500,000 on Tuesday, according to Cook County court records.